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<h1><a name="SECTION0017000000000000000000"></a>
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15. Optional Operating System Services
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<p>
The modules described in this chapter provide interfaces to operating
system features that are available on selected operating systems only.
The interfaces are generally modeled after the <span class="Unix">Unix</span> or C
interfaces but they are available on some other systems as well
(e.g. Windows or NT).  Here's an overview:

<p>
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      <td><b><tt class='module'><a href='module-select.html'>select</a></tt></b></td>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td class='synopsis'>Wait for I/O completion on multiple streams.</td></tr>
  <tr><td><b><tt class='module'><a href='module-thread.html'>thread</a></tt></b></td>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td class='synopsis'>Create multiple threads of control within one interpreter.</td></tr>
  <tr class='oddrow'>
      <td><b><tt class='module'><a href='module-threading.html'>threading</a></tt></b></td>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td class='synopsis'>Higher-level threading interface.</td></tr>
  <tr><td><b><tt class='module'><a href='module-dummythread.html'>dummy_thread</a></tt></b></td>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td class='synopsis'>Drop-in replacement for the <tt class="module"><a href="module-thread.html">thread</a></tt> module.</td></tr>
  <tr class='oddrow'>
      <td><b><tt class='module'><a href='module-dummythreading.html'>dummy_threading</a></tt></b></td>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td class='synopsis'>Drop-in replacement for the <tt class="module"><a href="module-threading.html">threading</a></tt> module.</td></tr>
  <tr><td><b><tt class='module'><a href='module-mmap.html'>mmap</a></tt></b></td>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td class='synopsis'>Interface to memory-mapped files for <span class="Unix">Unix</span> and Windows.</td></tr>
  <tr class='oddrow'>
      <td><b><tt class='module'><a href='module-readline.html'>readline</a></tt></b></td>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td class='synopsis'>GNU readline support for Python.</td></tr>
  <tr><td><b><tt class='module'><a href='module-rlcompleter.html'>rlcompleter</a></tt></b></td>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td class='synopsis'>Python identifier completion, suitable for the GNU readline library.</td></tr>
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<span class="release-info">Release 2.5.1, documentation updated on 18th April, 2007.</span>
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